An indepth study on gratitude has been carried out by psychologist Robert Emmons and colleagues at the University of California, Davis. He examined the effect of noting the good things that happen regularly. To conduct the study he set up three groups. One kept gratitude journals. One recorded daily hassles. The third wrote down neutral events. He found that the group keeping the journal exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week than the other groups. A second study found that the gratitude group enjoyed higher levels of alertness and energy compared with the others. A further benefit was observed in the realm of personal goal attainment: Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions.
If you want to try this exercise in your own lives you can do so very easily. You can choose to follow these simple instructions from Dr. Emmons : “There are many things in our lives, both large and small, that we might be grateful about. Think back over the past week and write down up to 5 things in your life that you are grateful or thankful for.” In actual fact it was found that those who wrote in their gratitude journals every day got far more benefits than those who did so weekly, so it is best to keep a small notebook and write up to five good things that happened during the day.
Or for those of you that have an iPhone and want to keep a gratitude journal, you can download the app "Gratitude": http://itunes.apple.com/app/gratitude-journal-positive/id299604556?mt=8
See more at http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/emmons
